This Weblog or "Blog" contains articles, events and opinions that support capital punishment in North Carolina and elsewhere. Author(s) of the contents are exercising their rights to free speech which unfortunately is often stifled or ignored by the media.
Contrary to what you might read or hear in the news, North Carolinians should be proud that an occassional and deserved execution is allowed to proceed.
- Wayne Uber

Wednesday, March 09, 2016

90% of victims' family members support the death penalty. 94% said the
imposed death sentence should be carried out. (1)Any state could, easily, do the same poll. I hope they do.I don't know if this was a poll of all crime victims and their survivors or
only death penalty eligible cases, which would, likely, produce the highest
support.

Oklahoma City Bombing case and the 9/11 terrorism
attacks:

Oklahoma City Bombing case:I am aware of 4 murder victim survivors who opposed Timothy McVeigh's
execution.That is 4 out of 1680 (10 times 168 murder victims) (2), or 0.2% opposed to execution.Way under 5%, which would require 84 death penalty opponents, using my
method (2).

"Survivors and family members took solace in McVeigh's death. Janice Smith, whose 46-year-old brother, Lanny Scroggins, died in the bombing, prayed with her children at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, then left after getting word that McVeigh was dead. ``It's over,'' she said. ``We don't have to continue with him anymore.'' Earlier, a silent vigil began without fanfare -- 168 minutes, one minute for each victim killed in the tragedy."

"McVeigh's execution was witnessed by 10 survivors and victims' relatives from the bombing . . . Meanwhile, about 600 miles away, an estimated 300 people gathered . . . to watch the execution unfold on a large video screen."

McVeigh wrote that taking 168 lives, including those of 19 children, was a "legit tactic."

======NOTE: Anti death penalty activist Bud Welck, whose daughter Julie was murdered in the OKC bombing has stated " . . . that the execution of Timothy McVeigh only ‘‘revictimized’’ the families of his victims." and that " . . . a poll taken in Oklahoma City showed that 85 percent of the survivors wanted the death penalty for Timothy McVeigh. But several years later the figure dropped to nearly half, and now many of those who supported the execution have come to believe it was a mistake."

For years , I have been trying find any evidence that such statements were true, from Mr. Welch, via both phone messages and emails to him and through the staff at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. Never has he replied, nor supplied any evidence, if it exists, nor have any of my internet searches turned up anything which confirmed Mr. Welch's claims.

9/11 terrorism attacks:I am aware of 3 of the nearly 30,000 9/11 murder victim's loved ones who
opposed either Bin Laden's death or those killed in drone strikes who were
connected to 9/11 or who have voiced any opposition to a death penalty for any
other 9/11 conspirators.That is 0.01% opposed.5% would be 1500. I have only found 3.MethodologySadly, these two mass murders were so huge, it presented this opportunity to
see what developed with a media that is always interested to find and publicize
murder victim survivors who oppose the death penalty, specifically, in death
penalty eligible cases.When there are death penalty opponents whose loved ones were murdered in
highly publicized cases, the media jumps all over them.I do my own google search for them, periodically, as well as inquire within
the crime victim community.When I get to 84 and 1500, respectively, I will re calculate. Likely, that
will not be necessary.

1)"Widow of slain policeman adamant in support of death penalty',
ReadingEagle.com, December 13, 20152) I multiplied every murder victim times 10 to arrive at the number of close loved ones per murder victim.

Monday, March 07, 2016

Libertarian: “Death Penalty Essential for Social
Justice”Dudley SharpThe Libertarian Party has, recently, voted, overwhelmingly, to oppose the death penalty, a decision based upon the inaccuracies and irrationality of the anti death penalty movement.quotes by Murray N. Rothbard - the Godfather of LibertarianismandWalter E. Block, PhD, well known libertarian, Austrian Economist and The
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics, Joseph
A. Butt, S.J. College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans and Prof. Roy
WhiteheadJUSTICE"What the murderer has done, essentially, to his victim is, in effect,
steal his life away." " . . . the murderer’s life is forfeit now, for justice is
timeless." (1)" . . . an individual's most important and primary property right
consists of his ownership over his own person. To interfere with that right is
to engage in an illicit taking . . . in effect murder is the theft of a life .
. ." (2)." . . .the murderer loses precisely the right of which he has deprived
another human being: the right to have one's life preserved from the violence of
another person. The murderer therefore deserves to be killed in return."
(3)" . . . the instincts of the public are correct on this issue: namely, that
the punishment should fit the crime; i.e., that punishment should be
proportional to the crime involved. The theoretical justification for this is
that an aggressor loses his rights to the extent that he has violated the rights
of another human being." (3)Victim survivors show 95% death penalty support. When the question to the
public is "Do you support the death penalty for murder?" and the responses are
- sometimes - always - or never - death penalty support is 80% or above
(8)."The libertarian takes his stand for individual rights not merely on the
basis of social consequences, but more emphatically on the justice that is due
to every individual." (3)" . . . the libertarian theory of punishment is one of compensation for
the victim; that is, the perpetrator is punished by forcing him to compensate the injured party to the extent of the rights violation perpetrated upon him."
"The reason for this is that libertarianism is predicated on an attempt to
attain justice . . . " (4)" . . . while it is impossible to place the victim
back on the plane of life he was following before the outrage, justice
consists of at least attempting to do so as far as possible." (5)"Each libertarian has his own foundation - or none - for private property
and non-aggression. What we have in common are just these two axiom." (6) "If
(libertarianism) has any one principle, it is that no one should initiate force
against non-aggressors." (6)Murder takes away all your property - your self - and violates the second
of the two primary axioms - the murderer violates non-aggression in the worst
form - by committing murder.Murder is, therefore, the greatest violation of libertarianism, with
execution representing justice for that violation.'

" . . . (killling) is not impermissible in self-defense, nor is it to kill
those who no longer have entitlement to their own lives. Let the message go out,
loud and clear: If you murder, you give up the right to your own life." (1)"It is a crime and a disgrace that such criminals now enjoy air
conditioning, television, exercise rooms, etc. They owe a debt to their victims’
heirs, who are now, to add insult to injury, forced to pay again, through taxes,
to maintain these miscreants in a relatively luxurious life, compared to what
they richly deserve." (1)See "The Death of Punishment", by Robert Blecker, 2014DETERRENCE"Another common liberal complaint is that the death penalty does not deter
murder from being committed. While it is impossible to prove the degree of
deterrence, it seems indisputable that some murders would be deterred by the
death penalty. Sometimes the liberal argument comes perilously close to
maintaining that no punishment deters any crime — a manifestly absurd view that
could easily be tested by removing all legal penalties for nonpayment of income
tax and seeing if there is any reduction in the taxes paid."(Wanna bet?)" (3)"If the prospect of even a small probability that the death penalty might
be imposed for even relatively minor crimes does not put a severe dent in
criminal behavior, then nothing will." (7)." . economists who ought to know better have found no statistically
significant correlation between reducing the murder rate and being or becoming a
death penalty state . . . that is only because murderers, like most of the rest
of us, pay attention not to dead letter laws, but to actual penalties."
(1)"It is fallacious to regard murderers as irrational: very few conduct their
business in police stations." (1)" When multiple regressions are run on murder rates, not against death
penalty status, but with regard to actual executions, the evidence is consistent
with the notion that such punishments reduce these crimes. This is entirely
compatible with the economic principle of downward sloping demand: the higher
the price, the less people wish to access. This holds for all human endeavors:
cars, pizza, and, yes, murder too." (1)There are now 28 US studies finding for death penalty deterrence, since
1997. The studies finding for deterrence are considerably stronger than the
criticisms of them. (9)"Nor is it possible not to regard murder as a stiffer penalty than life in
prison.Were this not so, we would scarcely find the denizens of death row trying
desperately to stave off, or better yet overturn, their executions." (1) COST"As for the costliness of executions, this is entirely a function of
present judicial functioning, which can be changed with the stroke of a pen."
(1)Responsibly managed death penalty systems should be less expensive or no
more than for life without parole, as detailed (10).Virginia has executed 70% of her death row murderers since 1976, that being
111 murderers executed within 7 years of full appeals, with not even a hint of
an innocent executed. Virginia's last execution took place on 10/1/2015, after 5
years of full appeals (10).=======1) “Death Penalty Essential for Social Justice”, Block, Walter E., The
Maroon, 10/10/03, Loyola University (New Orleans)2) p, 245, Whitehead, Roy and Walter E. Block. 2003. “Taking the assets of
the criminal to compensate victims of violence: a legal and philosophical
approach,” Wayne State University Law School Journal of Law in Society Vol. 5,
No. 1, Fall, 2003, pp.229-254; (death penalty justified) http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/block_taking-assets.pdf3) The Libertarian Position on Capital Punishment, Murray N. Rothbard,
Libertarian Review, June 1978